Blu-ray Consumer Guide: June 2011

These things are always fun at the start ("Yay! I'm gonna watch a shitload of discs!"), daunting in the middle ("When am I gonna find time to watch all these damn discs?"), and a pain in the ass at the end ("Christ, I've got to write about all these fucking discs!"). But I'm trying to manage my time better, and I've got a pile of discs ready to go for the next installment, which I should be well into before the Red Hook pool opens, at least watching-wise.

You may notice I included the Blu-ray of Lolita but not Barry Lyndon. As it happens, I'm still gathering, um, data, on the whole, um, aspect-ratio, um, thing. I will say the image quality of the disc is such that if you can, as Roger Corman might put it, swing with the 1.7-something frame, it's pretty damn good. And that's all I'm gonna say at the moment. In the meantime, enjoy. And as this is the most service-journalism-ish feature on this blog (ground rules: for the most part a subjective but informed image-and-home-theater-experience assessment) it's the one wherein I mention that the blog does have a tip jar widget. Thanks, and again, enjoy. 

Equipment used: Players: For Region A domestic and import discs, Playstation 3 console. For Region B import discs, OPPO BDP 83. Display: Hitachi P50V701, 16:9 Standard 2 Aspect Ratio setting, Day (Dynamic) picture setting, reset by eye by author using Lawrence of Arabia film still in Kevin Brownlow's David Lean biography as guide.

A.I. : Artificial Intelligence (Warner)

Possibly my personal favorite Steven Spielberg film, looking very good indeed on high-def.  That diffused lighting thang the director and his cinematographer Janusz Kaminski so enjoy is rendered very nicely.  The slightly inhuman sheen of the cyborg characters seems more evident/pronounced…but the effects stuff looks pretty seamless, at least as seamless as they were at the time. This is the first of several films I’ll be rating in high-def that my wife will never, ever, in a million years let herself be talked into watching—emotional child-abandonment trauma, don’t you know. —A

 All The President’s Men (Warner)

Cinematographer Gordon Willis has gone on record calling this hi-def version a botch, and complaining, quite justifiably, at not having been even contacted with a notion to being consulted on it. And it’s true—if the cinematographer’s alive and still has eyes and so one, he or she ought to be consulted. And then you get Vittorio Storaro and his unusual ideas concerning aspect ratios and you…oh, never mind. In any event, the Blu-ray of this classic and still extremely engaging thriller DOES render colors little toward the hot side, particularly in the  scenes set in the Washington Post offices—the red filing cabinets do look as if they’ve been freshly painted. Redford IS very golden and blonde. And so on. On the plus side, I have to say that this only really registers as a distraction when you’re concentrating on these details. In a lot of other respects, the new detail really enhances the absorbing viewing experience. But still. Come on. — B-

Le Amiche/La Signora senza Camelie (Eureka!/Masters of Cinema Import)

Two separate packages, Region-B locked imports from a great label; both spectacular looking black and white ‘50s 1.37 films; both correctives to the conventional (and fortunately now-fading) wisdom that Michelangelo Antonioni only became a major filmmaker with L’Avventura, and the equally incorrect notion that L’Avventura represented a major break from his prior films.  Both insanely good films. Ostensibly '50s melodramas, with Le Amiche being the ostensible "women's picture" and Signora a not-quite avant le lettre quasi Daisy Clover showbiz exposé. Both Antonioni to the bone, in fact—brilliant, detached, virtuosic but ampathetic constructions. Have I mentioned the image quality is remarkable?  The very astute Gabe Klinger’s smart video discussions (shot, and not badly at that, by one Joe Swanberg, making these quite possibly the only Swanberg-related products besides that Criterion My Dinner With Andre that I’ll ever be able to whole-heartedly endorse, although hope does spring eternal) are engaging extras on each of the discs, although be aware, Mr. Klinger is sufficiently youthful-appearing here as to perhaps inspire some envious “Doogie-Hauser-of-film-crit” grousing. But he really knows his stuff, and contextualizes it and communicates it in an engaging, direct way. Really remarkable image quality, have I mentioned that? No kidding, it's like a newly struck print on Signora. Same with Le Amiche. A new excuse to buy a region-free Blu-ray player. For real. —A+

Betty Blue (Cinema Libre Studios)

First thoughts upon popping in the disc, almost literally: “What the fuck is up with this MENU?” Ugly typeface, poor navigation. The trailer preceding the menu, advertising this upcoming group of high-def releases of films by director Jean-Jacques Beineix, also flummoxes, being all over the place in terms of image quality. Once you get past the menu and into the film, though things improve. It looks pretty damn good, there’s SOME noise evident at intervals in shadow-pocketed areas of the image, but nothing overtly egregious. The summery golden beach glow of the early idyllic scenes is very nice. The subtitles are shadowed for easier reading. There were weird pauses when skipping chapters on my player, but other than that, this was a nice surprise. —B+

 The Beyond (Arrow)

Lucio Fulci’s provocative meditation on the challenges of hotel renovation gets the elaborate cultists-gone-wild treatment courtesy of Arrow. An import at an import price, but a region-free one. A pretty much perfect rendition of the never-not-opportunistic horror cheapie: Grungy. Viscous. Disgusting.

Ew, and additionally, ick. As such, pretty great. —A-

Bicycle Thieves (Arrow)

Awesome U.K.-based label Arrow isn’t just about the exploitation films, you know, and this high-def rendering of a DeSica picture you might have heard of is thrillingly beautiful. Really sharp and beautiful for the most part, displaying a little material-related softness in some areas, but overall a complete gift. This is Region-B locked;  I don’t know if a domestic rendering of the film in Blu-ray is in the works, but if you’ve got the set-up for it this release is a must. —A

The Black Pirate (Kino Lorber)

As great Douglas Fairbanks silents are concerned, no, this isn’t The Thief of Bagdad, but it is frisky and full of derring-do and has incredibly interesting two-strip Technicolor sequences. This Blu-ray’s from a master made from the restoration negative and has an abundance of what we sometimes call “good” grain. It’s a touch on the bright side… and largely pretty beautiful. The colors often have a muted pastel feel that’s not at all displeasing. The detail reveals a good deal of the movie-magic involved in concocting this seafaring fantasy, e.g., painted backdrops on the desert island, pancake makeup on Fairbanks. A nifty package. More, please. —A-

Blow Out (Criterion)

Not my favorite DePalma by a long shot, not even at the time, even though I saw it in theaters something on like a half dozen occasions during its 1981 release. What can I tell you, I must have had a weird and/or insufficient social life back then. In any event, this new, director-approved presentation has more grain on it than I actually recall. Detailing and colors are very strong, very consistent. This isn’t the place to get into a debate on the relative merits of the picture itself but I do have to say that the blasted thing does move right along and holds together on its own terms. In other words…they don’t make ‘em like they used to? Who knows. Also, the guy who plays cranky-on-television dude  “Jack Matters” (Maurice Copeland) looks an awful lot like future-suicide-on-television Bud Dwyer, which is weird. In all, a package to delight even the skeptical on this picture, I’d say. —A

The Comancheros (Fox)

First thing you notice here is that the picture is pretty bright. The second thing is…Hey, is that Henry Daniell? So it is. Good grain structure, a touch of orange a little too prominent in the overall color palette, maybe… and widescreen. Director Michael Curtiz, whose final film this 1961 John-Wayne-starring Western was, didn’t work in ‘Scope often, so that’s an attraction. What’s this? Whoo-hoo! A roulette table! Shades of you-know-what, speaking of Curtiz pictures! Damn, look at that hat Wayne is wearing. There’s sometimes a too-bright sheen on nasty Lee Marvin’s face, and the strong detail here makes the “wound” on his forehead look exactly like the fake plastic vomit that you could never fool your friends with.  That aside, a fun picture of its kind, possibly for specialists/collectors/auteurist/Western freaks only. Actually, that covers a not insubstantial amount of ground. —B+

Dementia 13/The Terror (HD Cinema Classics)

Time to check out some offerings from a new label offering public-domain “cult” “classics” newly remastered in high-def, you know the drill hype. There’s something about such out-of-nowhere enterprises that causes almost automatic suspicion. I’ve been reading not-great things about the fare offered by HD Cinema Classics, which had put out HD versions of Karlson’s Kansas City Confidential and Welles’ The Stranger that reviews said were barely worthy of being designated high-def. I steered clear, therefore, but for some reason wasn’t able to resist these newer offerings, maybe because they were such particularized cult items that I couldn’t imagine a more prestigious, responsible outfit as being interested in taking Blu-ray custodianship of them. Well, I may be right there but more fool me. Dementia 13, an enjoyable early Coppola pulp thriller backed by Roger Corman, featuring that indelible early image of a still-blaring transistor radio under water, is here a disappointment even by the standards of disappointment. A “clean” black-and-white image, to be sure, but VERY soft, with a lot of digital manipulation. Ugh. Key scenes (e.g., the transistor radio shot!) don’t play very well. Too bright, face tones blooming, washed out…bleh.

For whatever reason, the separate package of Corman’s disorienting, enervating mess The Terror, in widescreen and color, looks a lot better, pretty close to how you’d imagine you’d see it at a local theater back in the day, given that said theater wouldn’t have cared much about the presentation of such a piece of bottom-of-the-bill schlock. Said indifference might be said to enhance the discreet tedium of the film itself. But then again, we’re here to examine technical quality, not extrapolate in the mode of the surrealist critics. So: there’s some noticeable blowing out in the exterior daylight stuff.  —Dementia: C-;The Terror: C+

Diabolique (Criterion)

Clouzot on Blu-ray: since The Wages of Fear, we pretty much always approve. This delightfully curdled thriller is a no-brainer for any library, and the Blu is an optimum presentations. The slight softness of the image that crops up at times seems a product of actual light diffusion rather than a weak transfer or digital manipulation. Still, the sharp cynicism of the picture and its climactic horror image do resolve in memory as a somewhat harder picture than is sometimes evident here. The experienced reality of it is very handsome and entirely apt.  —A

 Fat Girl (Criterion)

Catherine Breillat’s growing-up-much-worse-than-absurd laughfest, which would make a truly great double feature with Hughes’ Sixteen Candles, don’t you think, is presented here with a very strong European image. Perhaps a little too strong, as in overly detailed for absolute verisimilitude: you can see the strap of the prosthetic penis in the notorious “you’ll still be a virgin if I do it like so” scene. I swear I wasn’t looking for it, honest. (See also Breillat’s Sex is Comedy.) In any event, high-def provocation for the whole family, if you’re family’s headed by Chuck Manson! I kid! [Rim shot] Seriously, strong stuff, recommended if you’ve got the stomach. Given the level of cultural adventurousness encouraged by our various gatekeepers, for better or worse I imagine you probably already know, or think you know, if you do or not.  —A

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Criterion)

What can one say, besides what one is usually compelled to say when one looks into a Criterion high-def upgrade of one of its catalog titles. That is, “Wow, it’s like the old standard def one, one, only BETTER!!!!” I caught e very slight bit of video noise in Apocalypse Now pastiche desert-race scene, but that aside, pristine, hallucinatory, great. —A

 Grand Prix (Warner)

We can all agree on the film’s weaknesses as a film…that is, its dramatic component is…wait for it….kind of boring. Jessica Walter getting huffy or no Jessica Walter getting huffy. Who knew that the combined personalities of James Garner, Yves Montand, and Toshiro fucking Mifune could fail to generate onscreen excitement in and of themselves? Still, I loved the HD disc version of this non-classic strictly on image quality grounds back in the competing format day, and the Blu-ray version is just as good; a really stunning image. Demo disc material for those who know their stuff. I recall the HD of Milestone’s Mutiny on the Bounty had a similar wobbly movie/great disc vibe, and I eagerly await THAT Blu-ray, too. —A

The Great Dictator (Criterion)

Chaplin’s first fully-fledged talking picture, a pacifist satire that makes poor Ron Rosenbaum’s head explode whenever somebody brings it up. Not really. Still, just to be on the safe side, nobody mention this Blu-ray to him, and enjoy the beautiful silvery image quality of this Blu-ray; notice the detail of the wind moving the grass in the background of the opening gag with the exploding shell. Ponder, too, the beginning of Chaplin’s EXPANSIVE mode. (The film is 125 minutes). Warning: the sup commentary, by scholars Dan Kamin and Hooman Mehran, is informative but gives new meaning to the term “superdry.” —A+

Henri Georges Clouzot’s Inferno (Flicker Alley)

French critic and preservationist Serge Bromberg’s excavation of a doomed project by the aforementioned Clouzot is, I believe, the first Blu-ray disc from the redoubtable label Flicker Alley, and it’s a gorgeous rendition of a fascinating and slightly disturbing record of a filmmaker’s obsession. You’ve never seen such beautiful screen tests. And graphs! Look at the dotted green lines on that graph paper that was part of Clouzot’s prep for a film he could never finish! The actual hi-def video stuff—contemporary interviews with surviving individuals involved with the doomed ‘60s project—is actually weaker looking than the archival materials. But not bad at all. All this and a topless, smoking Romy Schneider—you could assemble a damn good fetish video from her footage alone. Maybe that was part of the problem. —A

The Horse Soldiers (MGM/Fox)

Ford on Blu-ray. Another we-always-approve thing. This bare-bones offering of a first-rate, consistently-toned 1960 Civil War story is very solid. While there’s no real “restoration” or boosting evident to speak of, this appears to have been mastered from materials in better than decent shape. Over at his own website, in a comments section, the ever-sharp-eyed Dave Kehr noted, “One thing the Blu-ray really brings out on The Horse Soldiers is the radically experimental nature of Clothier’s cinematography. Ford seems to have pushed/allowed him to go even further than Winton Hoch did (reluctantly, it’s said) in the impending thunderstorm sequence of She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. Throughout The Horse Soldiers, they’re shooting in low light, overcast conditions, with very little fill light in the foreground, going for a drained, flattened look at least ten years ahead of its time (I was often reminded of Ric Waite’s work on Walter Hill’s The Long Riders). That, combined with the unusual, for Ford, southern landscape with its soft, rolling hills and tense thickets of tall trees, gives The Horse Soldiers an exceptional atmosphere in late Ford — almost the opposite of the harsh contrast and spare sets of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, which of course was also photographed by Clothier.” I couldn’t put it better, so I won’t try. And I’ll be looking at the Blu-ray of The Long Riders for my next roundup. —A

The Hustler (Fox)

Good stuff, overall. There’s a slight, sometimes barely noticeable softness in the out-of-focus backgrounds of certain shots that speaks of some digitized adjustment, but nothing that really detracts from the overall effect. An auspicious high-def rendering of the beloved classic, etc. —A

Kes (Criterion)

“Was this shot in 16?” I wondered when I began watching this. Looks it, I further thought, but not in a bad way. The particular texture and grit of “realism” Ken Loach’s wondrous feature debut has is something I kind of reflexively associate with the smaller-gauge format. In any event, it was apparently NOT shot in 16, and it really looks swell. One of those films in which you can see the sun bright as any day right in the middle of a shot and you still know it’s cold as hell outside. The extras are also illuminating. Talk about a filmmaker who knows what he’s about;  Loach makes no bones about exactly what he and his cinema are after. Essential cinema in a superb configuration…albeit another film I’ll never show my poor wife (who was, just to give you a test case, absolutely traumatized by the penultimate scene of the Coens’ True Grit.)  A+

King of Kings (Warner)

People will say what they will about I Was A Teenage Jesus, but I’m always impressed by how fleet this thing is, how unusually it’s structured (the first hour is much more like a historical backgrounder than a Christ biopic), and by its quirky casting (Torn as Judas, Ryan as John the Baptist, etc.). And it does carry a sense of genuine albeit confused conviction throughout. And the image quality on this Blu-ray is gorgeous,  unimpeachable. My grade reflects my very pro-Nicholas-Ray-bias, I have to admit.—A+

Lolita (Warner)

Shelley Winters’ poignancy, James Mason’s dry line readings, and Peter Sellers’ alleged impersonation of his director’s Bronx honk notwithstanding, this teenage Nabokov freak has always considered this to be Kubrick’s weakest film. Still in all, I do not disdain its Blu-ray, which offers a quite nice black and white image in a lovely 1.66 frame. I’ve seen online complaints about low bitrates but can report from where I sit that the disc offers a far better-than average or even above-average home viewing experience.—A

 

The Man Who Could Cheat Death/The Skull (Paramount/Legend)

The double-feature Blu-ray discs of less-than-entirely distinguished Paramount releases from the Legend label, available at VERY popular prices, would seem, like the above-reviewed HD Cinema Classic titles, to present a “buyer beware” situation, potentially. But check it out. This double-feature offering presents two films on two separate discs…and one of them is, as you can see, The Skull, the lurid Freddie-Francis-directed 1965 Amicus potboiler-with-benefits. The picture here is grainy, a little on the purplish side to begin with…and improves further in. Into a fine, fun high-def experience. How much did I like it? So much that I haven’t even looked at The Man Who Could Cheat Death yet, and I’m already fully satisfied with having spent about 16 bucks on the package.  —B+

Once Upon A Time In The West (Paramount)

You know one movie moment that never fails to bring tears to my eyes? The crane shot going over the train station and showing the amazing Monument Valley landscape as Morricone’s score swells up during Claudia Cardinale’s entrance scene in this movie. And then the ride through the valley a little after that? I just bawl. I know, I’m abnormal. Anyway, this is one of my all time favorite movies, warts and all (this is not the time for a disquisition on Leone’s women problems, suffice it to say that’s where all of the wartage lies) and I see it on the big screen every time I can (did it at year’s end 2010, had an amazing time, at the Walter Reade). This Blu-ray uses the Film Foundation restoration as its source and has all the neat extras that were on the original DVD release. In any event, it was with a great sense of “WTFIU!?” when I put this in the player, which was soon replaced by a great sense of “WTFIU!!!!” I mean, this is IT. Nails it. Just wonderful.  From the first minute, it was like, “nailed it!”  And that continued throughout.—A+

 

Onechanbara (Bikini Samurai Squad) (Tokyo Shock)

Okay, I’ll admit that despite my sometimes refined language and my “aspirational” esoteric sensibility, I’m essentially as much of a piglet as any white male heterosexual. Hence my being drawn to this bit of Japanese exploitation, the cover/poster art of which features a view of star Eri Otuguro in a stance I find preternaturally, um, attractive. If only the film itself contained a single image as arresting. “Maybe the standard-def DVD was mastered too DARK, and I missed something. Maybe I should try the Blu-ray.” And so. I did. And no dice. I have to conclude the problem is with the film, as this doesn’t represent a bad transfer. I’m telling you this because you should avoid meeting the same fate, if you can help it. I’ll understand if you can’t. You pig.—C-

 

The Outlaw Josey Wales (Warner)

I don’t think this movie’s gonna need a whole lot of selling from my end, so I’ll just say the Blu-ray looks really great. They did a particularly good job with the video compression: you may recall there are quite a few fires in this picture, and nowhere do we get any cartoony stuff with the flames, a sign of half-assed compression at best. It’s releases such as this that have mavens accustomed to holding Warner to a very high standard, and that’s why we tend to be disappointed when it’s not always met, even in seemingly picayune ways.—A+

 

Pale Flower (Criterion)

This fatalistic deep-noir 1964 yakuza picture from director Masahiro Shinoda will be seen as a genuine discovery by a lot of people. It’s got some amazing stuff in it, for sure. And  this presentation offers a very good picture. Incredible detail. Wonderful blacks and grays. I was initially gonna say, the image “makes the film, which is no great shakes although it IS eccentric, look better than it actually is.” But I hear from some I have high regard for that they consider the film pretty great shakes indeed, which makes me wanna reassess it a bit. I wonder why I was initially disappointed in it; maybe because I was expected a Seigen Suzuki picture, and this ain’t that. In any event, the quality is SO outstanding that one wants to come back to the film again and again, so in a way Criterion has done MORE than its job here. So… —A+

Senso (Criterion)

Casting that could have been: Visconti wanted, and got assents from, Brando and Ingrid Bergman for his ultimately plangent period romance. But, “typical of Visconti’s bad luck,” Andrew Sarris recounted, Visconti’s “casting coup of the decade was vetoed by an Italian producer  who preferred and substituted Alida Valli and Farley Granger! Valli was extraordinarily effective and Granger surprisingly so, but the emotional electricity was never turned on.” Something else was, and from this period of hindsight this “lack” adds a dollop of not uninteresting objectivity to the operatic passion. In any event, this is a gorgeous disc of what has been a too-little seen film, and if you think the pastels of the two-strip Technicolor in The Black Pirate are something, you’ll be thrilled by the more delicate color effect the director and cinematographers Aldo, Krasker, and Rotunno (talk about a murderer’s row!) achieve here. You need this. And you know I NEVER say that. —A+

Smiles of a Summer Night (Criterion)

A good, fun Bergman, the basis of the great musical by Sondheim and company, riffed on not-so-well by Woody Allen in a similarly titled film and a bunch of others. Another one-time standard def disc raised to a new level by Criterion. The high-def version is not as unearthly and beautiful as that of The Magician, but that’s splitting hairs. “Wonderful” is the operative word. —A

 Solaris (Criterion)

The universally beloved sci-fi classic gets a high-def Criterion rethink with some new tints that emulate those on the not-well-liked Ruscico version, but have thus far not been as controversial as the whole Barry Lyndon aspect ratio deal. I wish I could accurately recollect things from my various theatrical viewing of the film but I understand that even attempting to do so is a way in which lies madness. What I can say is that it all FEELS right, and that the picture is gorgeously sharp, unimpeachable even; the grain structure true and filmlike. If you love the film, a must. If you think it might be of interest of you, this is the version to check out. If you’re not a fan, stay away. Simple.   A+

Some Like It Hot (MGM/Fox)

The release was not much hyped, the package is not big on new-new extras, but, like, holy crap: this is a really great looking version of one of the greatest comedies ever. Widescreen (ish-it’s actually a 1.66 picture!) black-and-white, with a real theatrical solidity to the picture, and no video noise to speak of. Tell the truth, I was expecting more than a bit, from the start, and so was a little shocked that there was…zip. Instead, fantastic differentiation in the gray scale, and there’s a lot of gray; look at the car Curtis and Lemmon are crouching behind in the garage massacre early on, versus the brick wall behind them. Marilyn really glistens, even when she’s looking a bit drawn and tense. A really great surprise and a must-have if you’ve ever loved the movie. —A+

 Something Wild (Criterion)

What a fascinating film. Watching it today, the notion that there’s somehow a schism between the ostensibly carefree, funsy opening stuff and the ultraviolent nasty climax is pretty much a complete myth, albeit one manipulated by director Jonathan Demme. All the seeds are there from the beginning, with the “Do I look like the kind of guy who would run out on a check, come on…” bit. Of course the mastery of tonal change is practically advertised in the reunion dance scene, as the lights go down and the band, The Willies as played by the Feelies, who had previously been playing exuberant covers of hit songs, transmogrify back into …the Feelies, and begin the somewhat sinister opening of “Loveless Love” (later to be heard to not entirely dissimilar effect in Assayas’ Carlos). Not for nothing, one realizes now, was Demme a producer on the film version of Willeford’s Miami Blues; the humor and warmth  side by side with venality, cruelty and violence here is very Willeford. There are also nods to Lang’s You Only Live Once…but I’m doing that thing where I’m getting into the film, not the Blu-ray. Which is just terrific.—A+

El Topo/The Holy Mountain (Abkco/Anchor Bay)

Holy crap, where did these prints of these whacked-out early ‘70s underground movies that made Alejandro Jodorowsky’s unusual name come from? They look AMAZING. SOMEONE at Abkco has a vault, and a temperature-controlled one at that. Or something. As for the films themselves, sold seperately on Blu-ray, they still remain an acquired taste. I was recently researching a piece on A Clockwork Orange, and I looked up Pauline Kael's review of it in her collection For Keeps, and found on a facing page her somewhat terrified finger-wagging at Jodorowsky and his audience of “heads,” with respect to El Topo: “…for the counter-culture violence is romantic and shock is beautiful; because extremes of feeling and lack of control are what one takes drugs for. What has begun happening, I think, is that the counter-culture has begun to look for the equivalent of a drug trip in its theatrical experiences.” Hey, whatever, lady, you can have your trip, just don’t bum out mine, dig? Also: what a priss! But seriously, the films play even more oddly in the absence of a counter-culture, and seem, frankly, more curios than bits of genuinely subversive art. Still, I’m glad to own these puppies, not least because the unclassifiable and perhaps unendurable Holy Mountain is really one of the great “confuse your friends” movies. —A

Topsy Turvy (Criterion)

Beautiful Blu-ray of a beautiful, engaging, utterly immersive movie. It would be almost repellently reductive to call this a Mike Leigh movie for people who don’t like Mike Leigh movies but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible for it to practically function as such, in any event. What makes it a good potential introduction to Leigh is the way it shows off the virtuosic talents of his filmmaking collaborators, particularly the cast. Like the best historical films, including Tavernier’s The Princess of Montpensier, this attempts to depict people actually living in their time. The rich, deep colors are in a sense informed and defined by this attempt to simulate a livable historical reality in which the performers can “be” their characters. —A+

 Yi Yi (Criterion)

The late great Edward Yang did not have what you’d call a showy, elaborate or baroque visual style; what he did have was a camera that served both as an observer/recorded and a pen. That these qualities are only enhanced and deepened by this excellent Blu-ray presentation of one of his finest films would of course stand to reason. Solid, better than solid in fact,; really just a terrific experience of a special, unique, moving film. —A+

 

Comments

[bill]

Not that I think anyone has to like her or anything. I was merely surprised.

[Kent Jones]

Tom, I think it's the PD status that's actually keeping BORN TO WIN from getting a good release. A very good movie. I seem to remember it turning up under multiple names at the supermarket of the drugstore in the 80s and 90s, each time with De Niro on the cover.

Theresa Russell - maybe not great, but one of the gutsiest actresses in movies.

Karen Black is something else again - so perceptive, expressive, willing to go into areas many of her contemporaries wouldn't touch.

[Tom Block]

>willing to go into areas many of her contemporaries wouldn't touch

This is undeniable, but Bruce Dern did the same thing, and he and Black both hit me the same way: an A for effort, but hardly, if ever, right on the button. I never once found myself being leveled by a Black performance the way I was by Duvall in "Thieves Like Us", or leaning back and just basking in her Karen Black glow while she did her thing. Hell, I'm not even sure what her thing was, but I do know it wasn't making me laugh hysterically or freezing my soul with some tossed-off gesture or insight, and at her worst she may as well have had embalming fluid coursing through her veins. It was always just kind of, "Gee, what a surprise. It's Karen Black again..."

And FWIW, these guys have a decent but totally low-res copy of "Born to Win":

http://www.archive.org/details/BorntoWin

So at least a good print exists *somewhere*. (I just watched the first 10 minutes and, naturally, Black's very winning there. But, still!)

[jbryant]

I met Theresa Russell at a collector's convention about a year ago, and she was sweet and fun to talk to. And just as sexy as she ever was. I had to restrain myself from shameless flirting (like it would've gotten me anywhere!).

I haven't seen Karen Black in ages, but it looks like she works constantly -- 3 or 4 movies a year, usually independent, probably no distribution or straight to DVD. She's got 4 titles listed for this year, including Christopher Munch's latest. Not bad for a 72-year-old in that biz.

[Dusty]

Glenn, what did you think about the weird filtering on the "Betty Blue" disc? It appears the film has been slightly sped up (the running time discrepancy seems to confirm this), and in an effort to reduce motion judder, been given the look of some HD video rather than film.

[Michael Adams]

Nancy Allen is obviously not on the level of those mentioned above, but until I glanced at her credits sparked by the argument above, I didn't realize how many perfectly acceptable performances she's given, even in the otherwise mediocre Philadelphia Experiment.

I attended a preview screening of De Palma's Home Movies at which she entered the theater and assumed her seat near the front like a diva. Made me like her even more. Hard to believe she'll be 61 next week.

Theresa Russell is terrific is a second-season episode of Fringe.

[Kent Jones]

Tom, I think I know what you mean, but I'm not sure. I would put it this way. During her heyday, I remember thinking, "Oh, Karen Black again." 40 years later, when almost everyone in movies looks like they work out about 5 hours per day, are surgically updated on a regular basis and spend more time on their "image" than they do on their acting, I put on FIVE EASY PIECES or DAY OF THE LOCUST or DRIVE, HE SAID and am reminded how unusual and talented Karen Black was.

I love Shelley Duvall too, maybe most of all in THREE WOMEN.

[Tom Block]

I hear that. It wouldn't matter how much personality she could bring, an actress starting out today with Black's mouth and eyes would be lucky to score "Hooker #3" in one of the "Hangover" pictures.

[Pete Apruzzese]

Great job with the guide as usual, Glenn. Pretty much agree on any of those titles that I've had a chance to view.

Let me throw in a big recommendation for the Best Buy exclusive release of "The Taking of Pelham 123" - it's a superb transfer of a dark and gritty-looking film. Very true to the source and it looks a lot like film on my projector.

[Victor Morton]

"Still in all, I do not disdain its Blu-ray, which offers a quite nice black and white image in a lovely 1.66 frame."

Are we sure that 1.66 is Kubrick's preferred frame?
#ducks

[Lex]

KES: What a pain in the ass movie.

[Sean]

I saw The Black Pirate in 16mm at my library when I was 9 or 10. I have a maybe unjustifiable love for it. There are many Douglas Fairbanks films I haven't seen yet, but I still rank it third after The Thief of Baghdad and Robin Hood.

[Ray]

Thanks, Glenn, for this piece! I just went over to Deep Discount DVD and bought a bunch of these at their sale--$11.09 for SOME LIKE IT HOT, $9.20 for HORSE SOLDIERS, etc.

For what it's worth, I did bite on the HD Cinema Classics version of KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL, and I thought it looked pretty good. Not reference quality or anything, but definitely worth the price, definitely a step up from standard def.